The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-12-03

put together. The whole education was
i given in the gymnasia, philosophers and
sophists lectured and talked in the gym
nasia, and these became places of resort for
all intellectual pursuits as well as physical
pursuits, and thus in these times mental
culture was an adjunct of physical culture
and not the reverse as now. "From the
early age of seven says Grote describing
the supreme devotion Of the Spartans to the
! subject in his elaborate history, throughout
his whole life as youth and man no less
than as boy, the Spartan citizen lived
habitually in public, always either himself
under drill, gymnastic or military, or as
Icritic and spectator of others" To excel
in it was one of the surest and shortest
roads to personal distinction and to the
highest honors the State could bestow.
at was consecrated by every sentiment
/ literary, domestic, and religious and blended
with all his ideas of individual culture and
personal dignity, beauty, health, prowess,
literary power, philosophy and political
renown"
The Romans too, practieed corporal cx-
ercises, but never with the zeal or laudable
1,pyrposes of the Greeks Under Nero,
| Greek ideas were imported and a gymna-
sum established, but they made gymnastics
only sport and pastime and not an end
in itself 1t consequently never hourished
as it had in its native soil.
With the dawn of chivalry it rose again
into great prominence but obtained No
permanence. From the decline of chivalry
onward through the sixteenth, seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, it became more
and more disesteemed, disregardcd and
less practiced. But although the practical
details may have relaxed their hold upon
the attention of the people, the theoretical
standing of physical culture in any compre-
hensive plan of education was on all hands
most abundantly and emphatically assert
ed. Rousseau in his Emile calls attention
to this indifference and speaks at length of
its injurious consequences. Montague in
a very brilliant essay on the education OF
youth says: Il would have boys outward
behavior and disposition of his limbs formed
at the same time with his mind. 1t is not
a soul, it is not body that we are training
up, it is a man and we ought not to divide
him into two parts.
Within the last century it has risen
rapidly in Germany and in France until it
equals if not surpasses the high position it
held in Ancient Greece, and within the
last half-century, it has forced itself into
light in this country, and through the
labors and endeavors chiefly Of German
educators is leavening the whole of the
educational lump. The report comes from
every direction that the old truth that edu-
cation must deal with the physical as well
as the intellectual and moral nature of the
pupils is being realized.
Physical culture is coming to be recog-
nized as branch of education and an
important branch at that Educators are
beginning to take more notice of the fact,
that the mind acts through the brain, that
the brain is a part of the body, and as u
part of the body depends for its own wei
fare largely upon the body as whole;
while all who are interested in the ad-
vancement of mankind, are anxious that
the growing and coming generations
should approximate that type of physique
which is at the same time model of fair
l,propertious, and the best fitted for its pur-
( pose of being the tenement of the mind
and the soul.
There must be no confusion of physical
culture with gymnastic, athletic or aero
batic sports. A Greek in the time of Solon
might have told us that it was to enable
the Athenian youth to win the laurels in
the Olympic games. A Roman expressing
the high esteem in which he held it, might
have told us it was a preparation for pugi.
lism and gladiatorial combats A knight
of the chivalric age might have told us that
it was to make its devotee excel in fencing,
wrestling, boxing and horsemanship. Or
in modern times there are some who be-
lieve its only purpose is to produce oars
men who can row the fastest, football
men who can endure the most brutality
pitchers who can give the base ball the
greatest rapidity or exactness OF curve
or men who can perform some unique feat
that is equally as useless as dangerous.
1t is needless to say, however, that all this
is not only wide of its real purpose, but
wide of what it actually did and is actually
doing, throughout the country, and who
ever thinks these the objects and results
of Physical Culture is greatly in the wrong
The similarity of physical to mental cul,
ture, to which have already alluded, runs
still farther. When boy enters College
almost his first experience is an examina
ton to find out what he knows, to aseer-
tain what has already been done towards
the cultivation of the mind His class is
then assigned in accordance with his rela-
ton to the class standards. So too, might
there not be physical examination and
the strong and weak points of the body
found out, and general comparison be
tween any subject and the typical man
instituted, SO that the proper agents Of
physical culture might be administered
and the correct amount and kind of ex'
ercise be prescribed.
/. just here, let me say word about what
is meant by the typical or representative
man-the ideal standard for the proper
size. perfect conformation, and highest
capacity Of the human body. Suppose 4
great number of men, for example ter
thousand, to be examined. Of course il
so large number, there would be greai
many having the same height. Lay off ;
separate column for each different heigh
found aud after asserting the men ac
cording to their heights, it will be noticed
that the greatest number are in the column
marked 5 #. II in This, then is the
mean, typical, or representative height Of
the American man. In precisely similar
way we could find the weight, girth ol
head, neck, chest, length of arms, &C., and
in addition to these measurements, coulC
find the capacity and strength of lungs
strength of back, chest, legs, &c. | have
called it an ideal standard because not one
in a thousand would come up to all the
typical measurements. Il would be to vi
the ideal of physical perfection, and from
, it could be deduced the laws giving the
relation of one part of the body to another
!, By means of these laws when given tn.
age, height, or sufficient factors, we could